So, Alberta had an election

I watched, listened, and learned.

Jun 05, 2023

The Alberta 2023 general election was, by far, the most difficult limited series to watch this year.

It was close. People were either voting UCP or NDP from start to finish. No votes were moved but there was an incredibly high number of undecided voters, some 20 per cent, that stayed relatively constant throughout.

How many ways can you say “we just don’t know, it’s very close; it is going to come down to voter turnout”? Not many; I know — I tried.

I would have been surprised if the NDP won but a 49-38 UCP win was within my own margin of error.

That’s not because the NDP couldn’t have won; rather, it’s because I spend time in circles where people refuse to vote NDP in the same way others refuse to vote conservative.

Let me be clear: people who voted UCP, by and large, did not vote for a party because of the shit cookie candidate (who is now known, province-wide, as “the shit cookie candidate”) because she made the despicable choice to attack children — that would require an attention span far greater than what most people give to their Christmas shopping list mid-May.

Similarly, people who voted NDP did not do so because they want to unionize farms, or make it illegal for children to work on farms, or otherwise rally against farmers.

Part of the problem is that the NDP spent 60 plus years in opposition.

For another piece, I spoke with Heather Forsyth and I acknowledged that being in opposition was “much easier”. She agreed.

One can be principled in opposition without having to weigh the consequences of their proposals. It worked for the NDP in the same way it worked for the Wildrose.

Equally similar, a large portion of the electorate never wanted to see either in government because sticking with ideological principles makes a party/leader look like they are incapable of making those difficult decisions with the best interests of all Albertans in mind.

I know many people are trying to put a healthy spin on this election but it actually comes down to the fact that half the province doesn’t agree — for a multitude of reasons.

Maybe it’s Rachel Notley or Danielle Smith; maybe it’s the NDP or UCP.

I am not a mind reader but I can say with a high amount of certainty that the opposition to each is strong and winning the next election requires each to turn over at least some of that opposition — and that will require each party/leader to reach people who don’t trust them, or start over again.

This is one of those moments that made people realize how horribly a similar action would be received by others.

Newly-elected Premier Danielle Smith told Shaye Ganam on 630 CHED/770 CHQR that she was going to appoint a “council of defeated” candidates from Edmonton to advise her on issues in Edmonton.

You know, rather than take elected NDP candidates’ word for anything.

As soon as I heard that, I wondered how it would be taken in rural — had the NDP won — if they’d have done the same.

Again, I spend time in certain circles and I can tell you it would have gone over as well as spicing up meatloaf with pieces of tinfoil.

Rural Alberta would lose their ever-loving excrement if the NDP would have even thought of appointing a council of defeated’s so as not to have work with the elected MLAs but especially if Rachel Notley had suggested she was doing so in order to give those candidates a better shot at winning next time.

The difference, of course, is that despite her pretty words of governing for all Albertans on election night, Danielle Smith doesn’t give a flying fig what people who didn’t vote for her think.

There’s a lesson there, for a lot of people, I’m sure.

Canada

We are, unfortunately, living in the era of “nothing else matters”. Online conspiracy theories make their way from the depths of stupid to the lips of our elected officials.

Theatre has always been part of our political question periods (I know — I looked up Hansard from the late 1800’s to get a feel for exactly that) but it has absolutely gone into the land of fiction rather than the land of the creatively speaking.

What is the difference? Language. Prose. Delivery.

Yet, it feels much different when debunked internet rumours are brought up as fact in parliament.

So, when Conservative Party of Canada leader, Pierre Poilievre, suggested that the Prime Minister left his previous role due to a nefarious reason that has absolutely not been proven, it was jarring.

Parliamentary privilege protects those who make wild claims within the House, however.

Forgive me if I mourn for the days of language, prose, and delivery.